Otago Peninsula Community Board Chairman

Tag Archives: Dunedin City

The recent gale force winds that ripped through the city last week were a bleak reminder of just how vulnerable we all are in the face of natural storm events. With damage to infrastructure, power outages and road closures our ability to be resilient in the face of such events was sorely tested. On the Otago Peninsula the storm saw Portobello Road lashed with surging seas that caused flooding and minor slipping. The miracle was that the road was kept opened and some credit must be given to the very busy contract crews for their work.

However, the closure of the alternative Highcliff Rd route is of major concern as we approach winter. The isolation of the Peninsula and its vulnerability to road closures have been well recorded in recent years. By good fortune the alternative routes at Castlewood and Highcliff Roads have been well used during post storm clean ups of slips on Portobello Road. Since the June 2015 floods the Highcliff Road route has been closed and it has caused significant problems and anxiety for the community. The City Council has announced (ODT 14th March) that the Highcliff slip will be tendered shortly. While its easy to criticize Council for the length of time its taken to get to this point, last weeks gales are a poignant reminder of just how urgent this work is for the community. Let’s hope its done very soon.

Its been a busy year for myself and the Peninsula Community Board with a variety of issues and projects. I never find being on the Board a chore because there’s always something interesting to be done or a new people to meet. I’ve always been a problem-solver so being on the Board is actually an enjoyable challenge. I’m looking forward to 2016 because I feel I have more to offer and do for the community. Some of those issues include;

The 2GP and how the final issues around hazard management and rural are resolved for regions like the Peninsula.

Tomahawk School and the ongoing need to ensure the community have a say in the way these Council assets are managed.

Tomahawk Lagoon and the way the ORC manage the water quality and levels for the welfare of the community.

Roading projects around the Peninsula including the re-opening of Highcliff Road.

Sand dune management in places like Tomahawk and Okia.

Supporting the Te Rauone community to complete their beach management project.

Reviewing how effective the new freedom camping bylaw has been.

Continuing to advocate for better broadband and rural internet access.

The District Plan is an extremely important document for Dunedin. It outlines the future direction of the city in regards to development, business, housing and the environment. The Resource Management Act 1991 requires a district plan to have;

Objectives for the district

Policies to implement the objectives

Rules to implement the policies.

It’s a crucial document to the city, but it’s also one that people need to take notice of and understand how its rules, policies and objectives might affect them. It may change what you can do on your property or the activities that you can undertake. With this in mind its imperative that everyone takes notice of the district plan and participates in the submission process. if there is something that you don’t like about the plan and you don’t submit on that issue, that section could become operative and its much harder to change.

I urge everyone to look at the proposed 2GP and at the least look at the maps to ascertain any changes to your property or community. The community only has until Tuesday, November 24 2015 to finalise their submissions.

Our first experiences of the environment and biodiversity usually come from our early explorations as children in our backyard and local community. It’s the beginning of our awareness of the natural world and an important step into our understanding of the world around us. The Dunedin City Council has recently presented Te Ao Turoa – The Natural World as a draft environmental strategy for the City. The proposed strategy lo sets out themes, objectives and priorities for the management of the Dunedin Environment.

I was asked to write a submission on the proposed strategy on behalf of the Otago Peninsula Community Board. Strategy documents like this one are highly aspirational, they aspire to high level objectives and priorities. There’s nothing wrong with this as it’s designed to give some direction in a very complicated issue, but the real test of these kinds of documents lies in how they are going to be implemented and funded. The other part of that test is whether the organisation that develops the strategy can ensure that it becomes part of the broader corporate culture of that organisation at all levels. This is a particularly critical aspect for its success.

My submission on behalf of the Community Board dealt specifically with the effects of the strategy on the Otago Peninsula. Implementation, communication and the ability of the strategy to be assimilated into the contractual, legal and policy landscape were major themes of that submission. The other aspect of the submission was the acknowledgement of community, business and human resources in the management and conservation of the environment needs deeper consideration. This is directly relevant to the Peninsula as our landscape and environment is so highly reliant on people who act as guardians and stewards of this unique place. It’s always difficult to synthesize such a daunting topic as the environment in a few succinct pages of a submission. The scale of the topic and its complexities means that you always feel as though there’s something you’ve missed out. I imagine that the strategy process will be an evolutionary one as submissions come in from a wide range of people around the city with widely different views.

Many households and businesses have frustrations over the availability and quality of broadband in New Zealand. It seems to be taking forever for the fibre network and rural broadband initiatives to become available for many. The Otago Peninsula is no different and given its importance to the local economy as a tourism destination the need for better broadband coverage is becoming more apparent. At a broader level, business, education and community opportunities are being impeded by not having a reliable and accessible service.

No matter what scale business is, the opportunities that broadband provides are immense to improve productivity, the way people work and the way they promote their business. I was asked by the Peninsula Community Board to put together a submission to the Governments Digital Enablement Plan. The submission will be part of the Dunedin city Council’s citywide submission on broadband for Dunedin. I would have liked to have placed the direction of the submission from inquiry from the wider community, but time did not allow that. I’ve tried to provide a balance between business and community needs over the broadband issue so that everyone gets a fair degree of representation. I’m still very open to people contacting me if they have any thoughts or queries about the submission.

The recent Representation Review undertaken by the Dunedin City Council will see major changes to Community Boards across the city. For the Otago Peninsula that means we have lost the Tomahawk area from the Otago Peninsula and next year may lose two of the Board’s members. This appears to be part of a longer term plan by the City Council to abolish Community Boards all together. For me its deeply disappointing to lose part of our community from what has been a traditional part of the Peninsula for more than 150 years. I’ve heard arguments from urban people who areas with Community Boards essentially get two types of representation. To some degree that’s true, but when I look around the city there’s actually a good argument for having more board’s to represent people in urban areas. Take South Dunedin for example, what might an active Community Board have done for this suburb? Perhaps it might not still be waiting after many years for a library to be built.

The other aspect of the Representation Review that I’ve found concerning is the question of value to the community from having a board. It appears that the long-term plan will be to disestablish boards from all communities, and have community groups act as conduits with the City Council. In essence this is a type of community privatisation, where private groups will represent the needs of their community and compete for the small amount of funding in that sector. The trouble with this option is how can the community or the Council actually know whether any one group actually represent the views of any given community? Communities are funny things, often its the squeaky wheel or the loudest voice that is heard first. Sometimes, that’s not always fair and there are examples of local groups claiming to represent the views of the community when they have no such mandate. This is where Community Boards come to the fore, because they are elected bodies with rules around conflicts of interest and representation. They are not serving their own interest, but the collective interest of their communities.

The loss of Community Boards has serious consequences for governance and representational democracy in Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula. More importantly it is breaking up the traditional areas and communities of our city.

As April moves rapidly towards ANZAC Day, people across the country draw their attention to local commemorations especially in light of the centenary of the Anzac landings at Gallipoli. Today I attended the unveiling of the refurbished Soldiers Memorial in Highcliff Rd on the Otago Peninsula. Despite an icy wet blast many people made the trip to this commanding place with its 360 degree panoramic views of the city. The refurbishment of the memorial was undertaken as a Rotary project that this organisation does so well. The dramatic setting of the Soldiers Memorial is a very tangible link between the Peninsula landscape and its people and a moving place to reflect on those terrible times 100 years ago.

As time moves on and the survivors of both World Wars dwindle in numbers the mantle of commemoration is being passed to a new generation of people across New Zealand. Our commemorations are not just a time to reflect on the values of service and sacrifice, but also on the peace and security that we have enjoyed. With this in mind perhaps we should also reflect on how we can best use this peace to serve our families, our community and our country today. The lasting legacy of New Zealand’s servicemen and women has been that their victories are those of peace not of war. Lest we forget. (Click on the pictures to see in full size)

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Kia ora and Welcome

I'm Paul Pope the Chairman of the Otago Peninsula Community Board. I was elected to the Board in 2013 and became chair in 2016. I bring a wealth of experience, common sense and a community focused perspective. I've created this blog to let people know my personal views and opinions on some of the issues that affect our community. Its also an opportunity for people to contact me, offer their advice or share a problem.